I frequently write blogposts on my site and LinkedIn in which I provide an easy to understand, but evidence based answer to practical questions. Feel free to connect to stay up-to date on the latest sport science research!

I also frequently share new research on Twitter and Facebook, so feel free to follow.

Podcast

I'm regularly asked to do presentations on sports science topics. These presentations can be webinars, podcasts but also 'real' presentations at a specific location.

Click here for an example of a podcast with Just Fly Performance where I discuss muscle slack, hamstring functioning, eccentric muscle actions and much more.

Publications/Research

I also frequently write scientific peer-reviewed publications in Dutch and English about various sport science and strength and conditioning related topics. For a full list of my publications, click here.

Some example topics of publications:

Muscle slack

I have written a publication with Frans Bosch about the influence of muscle slack on sports performance. In many situations it is important to rapidly produce force. However, when the muscle fibers of a relaxed muscle contract, they first need to take slack out of the muscle-tendon unit (see the image below). This delay can take >100ms and is therefore an important, but often overlooked factor that affects sports performance. In the review, we discuss the acute and long-term effects of training on muscle slack.

Schematic representation of the muscle action during a push-off (left) and the time course of force production (right). The horizontal double arrows indicate where muscle slack dominates the push-off. The increasing size of the vertical arrow in the left images represents the increase in force production and force application.

Isometric hamstring functioning during running

I have also written a publication with Frans Bosch where we argue that there is no eccentric, but an isometric hamstring muscle fiber action during the swing phase of high-speed running. In a second paper we provide practical applications to condition the hamstrings in a specific way. We argue that high-intensity isometric exercises may also be highly effective for injury prevention and performance enhancement.

Slack is taken out of the fibers, tendinous tissues and the total muscle-tendon unit by the pendulum action of the lower leg after which the tendinous tissues are stretched while the fibers remain close to isometric.

More...

Interested in more publications? Click here. All publications are free to download (sometimes after a request).